An Overview of Pulsed Jet Actuators
Speaker: Max Roman
Advisor: Dr. Nadine Aubry
The forced vibration of a plate or membrane in a sealed cavity with a small opening can cause fluid to be pumped into and out-of the cavity. If the frequency and amplitude of vibration are large enough,
a streaming of vortex rings occurs near the orifice. Further downstream of the orifice these vortex pairs ultimately break up to form a fully developed jet. This phenomenon has been shown to be effective for a multitude of applications,
including mixing, cooling of electronic components, micro-propulsion and flow control, such as the suppression of vortex shedding. To better understand the fundamentals of the coupled physics of the actuator, our work has
focused on theoretical modeling, computer simulation (CFD) and experiments. This method of generating a jet lends itself well to microfabrication, and a design has been submitted for microfabrication on silicon platforms.
An overview for the motivation and of the design considerations will be presented.